The recent death of Patrick Macnee had me and anyone else who has watched TV in the last fifty years thinking about The Avengers. Most fans of the series, especially Americans, are familiar with Emma Peel and the later seasons of The Avengers, but not the early seasons. I have always been curious on what happened before Diana Rigg arrived.

It began with the failed British TV series Police Surgeon that starred the popular and talented actor Ian Hendry as Dr. Geoffrey Brent. ABC was looking for something different from the “realistic and gloomy plays” that currently filled the schedule. Originally plans were to spin-off the character Dr. Brent but for a variety of reasons it was decided to drop any connection the new series might have to Police Surgeon. ABC’s head of programming Sydney Newman and Police Surgeon producer Leonard White decided to create a new series around Ian Hendry. Newman, White and a group of production people and writers would create The Avengers, a hardboiled thriller with a dark sense of humor that starred Hendry as Dr. David Keel. Patrick Macnee was hired as spy John Steed in a supporting role. The only other connection The Avengers had to Police Surgeon was actress Ingrid Hafner who played Police Surgeon Nurse Amanda Gibbs and The Avengers Nurse Carol Wilson.

For years the episode “The Frighteners” was the only surviving episode from the first season (or in British terms the first series), but then the episode “Girl On the Trapeze” and the first act of the first episode “Hot Snow” were found in the UCLA TV/Film archive. It is not unusual now to find all three on YouTube in various conditions.

Despite the lack of actual episodes, today we know much more about the first season. Reconstructions of the missing programs can be found at Alan Hayes’ website “The Avengers Declassified.”

There is also a book The Strange Case of the Missing Episodes – The Lost Stories of The Avengers, Series 1, by Richard McGinlay, Alan Hayes and Alys Hayes (Hidden Tiger, 2013) that examines each of the Season One episodes in detail. Another book by McGinlay and Alan Hayes, With Umbrella, Scotch and Cigarettes – An Unauthorized Guide to The Avengers Series 1 (Hidden Tiger, 2014) examines behind the scenes of the first season. (I highly recommend both books, especially With Umbrella… for more details about the series than I can fit in here.)

Also beloved audio producer Big Finish has begun to record audio recreations of the lost Season One episodes with Anthony Howell as Dr. Keel, Julian Wadham as John Steed and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol Wilson.

The series first three seasons were shot live on videotape and in black and white. Because of a lack of worthy scripts and to gain more time Season One episode three was broadcast live and that would continue until episode ten returned to live on videotape.

Because of the regional system of British TV, the actual airdates vary such as the first episode “Hot Snow” first aired in only two small regions (Midlands and North) on January 7, 1961 then in five other regions including London on March 18, 1961 and not transmitted at all in the final five regions. Because of this I have left the airdate off the episodes reviewed below.

One note about the YouTube videos used here. Each is the best available at the moment, but the videos are marred by the unnecessary addition of a iris shape light in the center of the picture that was pointlessly added by whoever downloaded these episodes.

“The Frighteners.” – Teleplay by Berkeley* Mather. Directed by Peter Hammond. Produced by Leonard White. Guest Cast: Willoughby Goddard, Philip Gilbert and Philip Locke. *** A rich father hires the Deacon and his “frighteners” to beat-up and scare off a man who wants to marry his daughter.

* On-screen typo for Berkely Mather (author of Pass Beyond Kashmir (1960). The book almost adapted for film by Bond producers to star Sean Connery and Honor Blackman.)

It is impossible to fairly critique this early episode after experiencing what would follow. Those who enjoy their crime melodrama’s hardboiled will enjoy this one. Ian Hendry turned in a fine performance as the reckless heroic Doctor Keel. But the series and Steed were still a work in progress. While Hendry was the star and the story focused on his character he was just one of many to assist the ruthless and flippant Steed. Perhaps the most noticeable difference between this The Avengers and those with Rigg was a lack of playfulness and fun.

The first season of The Avengers was a mild success but was cut short by an Equity (actors) strike at ITV that began November 1961 and lasted until April 1962. Only twenty-six episodes were completed when the strike shut down production. Producer Leonard White and the writing staff continued to work on possible changes to the series. White had hoped to do thirty-nine episodes for the first season. In late 1961 White began to make plans to add a new female character to the cast, a jazz singer named Venus Smith. She and Dr. Keel would alternate episodes as Steed’s partner.

As some point Ian Hendry broke his contract and left the series. Producer White would long hold out hope that Hendry might return if only for an occasional guest role.

In February 1962 while the actors were still on strike, White briefed the writers about Season Two and its characters – John Steed as the lead, Venus Smith and Cathy Gale as his partners who would alternated episodes, and One-Ten (one of the men to give Steed his instructions – played by Douglas Muir in five episodes).

The strike ended in April and The Avengers resumed production in May, despite not having yet cast the roles of Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman would get the part in June 1962) or Venus Smith. The first audition for the role of Venus was held in August 1962 and Angela Douglas (Carry On… film series) was hired. But then for some reason she was no longer available. A second audition was held August 31, 1962 and Julie Stevens was selected for the role of Venus Smith. But Steed needed some one to be his partner to resume shooting in May, and despite his hopes producer White finally realized Ian Hendry was not coming back.

Enter Dr. Martin King played by Jon Rollason. An obvious fill-in for Ian Hendry who was now off making movies, Rollason lacked the talent and wit of Hendry. He lasted only three episodes – “Mission To Montreal,” “Dead On Course,” and “The Sell-Out.” All three episodes made use of first season scripts written for Hendry’s Dr. David Keel, “Mission To Montreal” was originally “Gale Force,” “Dead On Course” was “The Plane Wreckers,” while “Sell-Out” kept its original title. Little was changed except the characters’ names with Dr. David Keel becoming Dr. Martin King and Keel’s Nurse Carol Wilson (Ingrid Hafner) replaced by Judy (played by Gillian Muir).

“Mission To Montreal.” Teleplay by Lester Powell. Directed by Don Leaver. Produced by Leonard White. Guest Cast: Patricia English, Iris Russell, and Mark Eden. *** When a sex-symbol star’s stand-in is killed in her dressing room the terrified actress quits and takes a cruise to Montreal.

The episode was an average TV thriller about a cruise ship full of spies and various suspicious characters. While Rollason is instantly forgettable in the leading role, Macnee continued to make the callous Steed almost likable.

Poor Julie Stevens. She had a nice voice but lacked a great deal as a performer and actress. It was not her fault the writers failed so epically with the character of Venus Smith.

The idea of adding a jazz singer with the backdrop of the shady wicked world of the nightclub seemed to fit Steed’s work and the naughty second season. The additional music could enhance the current and popular soundtrack work of Johnny Dankworth. It would also allow more sexual situations, something both Newman and White wanted to add in the second season. Yet somehow they went from casting a CARRY ON girl as Venus Smith to inexperienced young Julie Stevens. Venus became a naïve not too bright twenty-year old – an anti-Mrs. Catherine Gale.

The writers seemed lost what to do with Venus. She seemed to exist to get in the way and need rescued. There are episodes when we wonder why Venus is even there. In “A Chorus of Frogs,” Steed involves Venus in a dangerous mission without asking just so he would have a cabin to stay in when he stows away on a ship. The Steed-Venus relationship is as creepy as Steed would ever get as he flirts with her then ruthlessly toss the clueless young girl into situations that could cost Venus her life.

Thankfully for all, Venus lasted only six episodes in the second season -“The Decapod,” “The Removal Man,” “Box of Tricks,” School of Traitors,” “Man In the Mirror,” and “A Chorus of Frogs.”

“The Removal Man.” Teleplay by Roger Marshall and Jeremy Scott. Directed by Don Leaver. Produced by Leonard White. Guest Cast: Edwin Richfield, Patricia Denys, George Roderick and The David Lee Trio (David Lee: piano, Spike Heatley: double bass, and Art Morgan: drums). Recurring Cast: Douglas Muir as One-Ten. *** Steed goes undercover to stop a gang of hired killers with high profile targets. One-Ten and Steed have arranged to have the unsuspecting Venus get hired to sing at one of the gang member’s nightclub.

An above average hardboiled thriller with logic problems and an unlikable Steed. There is no real reason for Venus to be there except to sing and to have someone there to ruin undercover Steed’s plan. This episode is a good sample of the increased kinkiness of the second season with hints of nudity and sexual banter. The nightclub setting was underused and the music for the most part seemed to be filler for a too short script.

David K. Smith’s website “Avengers Forever” has a cheeky essay from this episode co-writer Roger Marshall about writing for The Avengers and some of his co-workers such as Brian Clemens.

Producer Leonard White would leave the series during Season Two. Replacing White was John Bryce, one of the series story editors from the beginning. Executive Sydney Newman left to run BBC programming and help create Doctor Who and Adam Adamant Lives!

Steed’s third and main partner in Season Two would save the series. Next we will examine the story of Mrs. Catherine Gale as played by Honor Blackman.

24 Responses to “THE AVENGERS BEFORE DIANA RIGG – PART ONE: THE BEGINNINGS, by Michel Shonk.”

I know I have the AVENGERS-EMMA PEEL megaset that has been released in this country, because I came across it just a few days ago. But back when I first got my multi-region DVD player, I’m sure I splurged and bought myself a Region 2 set of every AVENGERS episode available at the time. I’m not positive that I did, but if I have the ADAM ADAMANT set on Region 2 (and I do) why wouldn’t I have gone for the AVENGERS set too?

The DVD and VHS releases are more complete overseas but all of Diana Rigg’s have shown up in America more than once. The Linda Thorson and Honor Blackman seems all available. Julie Stephens is available but harder to find and I am not sure Jon Rollason episodes are.
By the way, IMdb can amaze me at time. Check Thorson’s page on IMdb. In the “Known For” line: first is ONE LIFE TO LIVE (1968), and second is THE AVENGERS (1961 with Honor Blackman DVD box cover).

Linda Thorson’s tenure on One Life To Live was from 1989 to 1992 (1968 was when OLTL first went on the air).
By the late ’80s, Thorson had been living in the USA for at least a decade; by this time, she had become noticeably more angular in both face and form than she’d been in her Avengers days – her role was as the scheming mother of one of the young female leads (her TV daughter, Fiona Hutchison, was only 13 years her junior).
These days, Linda Thorson is in New York City, mainly doing theater, she’s now 68, and her hair is completely white; make of that what you will.

There isn’t really one single series called THE AVENGERS. There are several different series all connected by Macnee. By the third year, with only Steed/Gale, it had become much closer to what we think of as the classic form of THE AVENGERS. Steed, in particular, was much closer to the character of the filmed series, being devious but more likeable. But series 2 is a weird mix of the Hendry series and the show yet to come. Venus Smith is a weird mis-step; when Steed throws Cathy into the deep-end it is rather fun, when he does the same to Venus it feels rather uncomfortable.

On the whole I agree on Venus Smith – a character with just not enough potential or versatility. On the other hand I think A Chorus of Frogs is a great episode. And The Decapod, Box of Tricks and School for Traitors aren’t bad either.

The iris shaped light in the center of the screen is certainly annoying, but it is not actually pointless. The explanation I have read is that this somehow prevents YouTube from recognizing an unauthorized posting of copyrighted material as such, and so keeps the video from being pulled. Other methods to the same end include reversing the image, slightly speeding the film, and framing the image within another image. I have also read that none of these tricks actually works, but the point is that people believe they do and so employ them.

My own rule is: I will tolerate them, if there is no unaltered version available, in the British panel shows to which I have become addicted (“Mock the Week,” “Have I Got News for You,” etc.), but I find them too much of a distraction to bear in anything with a plot.

4. BRADSTREET, you are right the show went through many changes. Part One deals with the part few Americas have seen while the next part will focus on Honor Blackman’s Cathy Gale the missing link to Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel. The iconic THE AVENGERS that is remember today lasted only two seasons (4th and 5th).
Steed never really clicked until he became a stereotype in Series 4. You can see in the early episodes how they were still searching for who Steed was.

5. Al, I wonder how disappointed audiences were when it was a Venus Smith episode instead of a Cathy Gale. All of Venus’ episodes would have been better with Cathy.
The writers understood the hardboiled adult plots of Season Two, stories that fit the character of Cathy Gale. Poor Julie Stevens her character faced the same problems trying to compete with Cathy Gale that Linda Thorson in the future would face competing against Diana Rigg.

6. Touch-and-go Bullethead thanks for the explanation. I have noticed the light is getting more common. But if the purpose is to make the show available to watch and enjoy the light defeats the purpose.
The Collector’s market and YouTube are life savers to much of pop culture. But as a researcher there are things about them that drive me crazy. The worse is finding a long lost TV series without its credits.
I also find those among the copyright thieves who whine about others stealing their stolen property hilarious. Those who add identifying marks or personal content are absurdly clueless about copyright laws. I had lumped the light into that group. Nice to know the real reason.

Linda Thorson era shows how, unlike most TV series, THE AVENGERS did not evolve to get better. She also shows how totally clueless network executives and producers can be when trying to understand what audience want and why they watch a TV series.
In Part Two I will mention Producer John Bryce who played a major role in the first three seasons going from one of the first story editors and part of the creative group that created the series to producing part of Season 2 and all of 3.
When Diana Rigg left at the end of Season Five, the network and Clemens fought over what type of female character would replace Emma Peel. Clemens (and Fennell) were fired/quit and replaced by Bryce. Bryce agreed with the network that wanted a more old fashioned female stereotype rather than another kick ass woman.
Bryce should have known better having survived the failure of Venus Smith.
Some TV series are blessed by some unexplainable luck and magic. Diana Rigg brought that to THE AVENGERS, but in every other form THE AVENGERS was an average to better than average TV series.

Growing up in Britain in the ’70s, the original series was practically impossible to see. At the time, the fan consensus seemed to be that the two Rigg series were brilliant and the rest of it was rubbish. When both the Rigg episodes and the other versions became more widely available in the ’80s I began to doubt he received wisdom. Whilst the early years can seem a bit clunky, season three can stand up alongside any of the later filmed series. Technically it is less sophisticated, but in all other respects it is the equal (it is interesting how many of that seasons stories were later adapted for the colour Rigg season). Blackman became a huge star in the UK thanks to the show, but she’s still less well known in the US because she’s on videotape. For many US viewers the videotape era is still an unknown quantity.
Personally, I like the more abrasive relationship that she has with Steed–

STEED: Hello, Mrs Gale, what’s for breakfast?

CATHY: Why not make it yourself and find out!

Whilst I am a huge fan of Rigg, I can’t agree that she is somehow the magic ingredient that turned it into a great show. It’s vitally important that you look at the qualitites that Fennell and Clemens gave the show, not to mention the cinematic style that the film directors brought to the mix.

Thorson, to my mind, was the victim of the chaos behind the scenes. By the time that Clemens was reinstated, the show had fallen so far behind schedule that there was no time to polish the scripts to the level that they needed. That said, if you look at episodes like ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS or THE INTERROGATORS or THEY KEPT KILLING STEED, she is excellent. She’s not toe uber-cool Mrs Peel, or the tougher Mrs Gale, but she is a kick-ass heroine. In KILLER Macnee gets Jennifer Croxton as a partner, and she works very well, but she does come across as Mrs-Peel-Lite. In outline Cathy and Emma come across as very similar characters, and the major difference is in how the actresses play the role. By this point in the show’s history there was no point in simply supplying another version of the same female character. When her character was written for intelligently she delivered the goods. I tend to agree with Clemens that the Thorson era contains some of the best and worst scripts of the show.

The first time I ever heard of The Avengers was circa 1963, in the pages of TV Guide.
The show hadn’t yet aired in the USA; this was still the Honor Blackman period, just before the theatrical release of Goldfinger.
TVG’s European reporter, Robert Musel, wrote about how the British audience, and especially the print critics, couldn’t figure out whether the series was serious or a send-up (to use the British term).
This was actually a point of controversy over there, particularly when Blackman started wearing that black leather getup.

Anyway, someone at Rediffusion-ABC, the British producers, finally figured out that The Avengers might have more to it than the brass realized (especially when the USA started sniffing around). Thus , the change from videotape (the GB 408-line standard, which was a hard sell to foreign markets anyway) to film (which you could show anywhere).
When American ABC was ready to buy the films, Diana Rigg was already in place. This was 1966, and color (excuse me, colour) was the next step …
… and the rest, you know.

Currently I am working on a review that takes Clemens third season episode with Honor Blackman “Don’t Look Behind You” and compares it to Clemens remake of the episode with Diana Rigg in fourth season episode “The Joker.” It has surprised me.

Steed’s evolution is interesting as he progresses from very much a a Peter Cheyney type common to the Dark series of spy novels to the bowler hatted old school tie public school gentleman with a dark side of the Rigg years. The early version has been described as something of an elegant thug.

Some of the Hendry and Venus Smith episodes aired when THE AVENGERS played on Encore Mystery channel.
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13. Mike Doran, Part Two goes into more of that. Color didn’t come to THE AVENGERS until the middle of Diana Rigg’s first season (the fourth). Film also came in the fourth season.
America was showing interest in the series during the Honor Blackman final season (third). One American producer wanted to turn the show into a movie, another a Broadway show. But then…well no spoilers until Part Two.

That “first American interest” was most likely the TV Guide article I referred to above.
The first American Avengers airing was in March 1966, the B/W films with Diana Rigg. The first one to air was “The Cybernauts”, probably because the guest star was Michael Gough, whose Hammer horror films might have made his a bit recognizable to the US audience.
The B/W Riggs ran throughout the summer months (not in GB broadcast order; several of them weren’t aired in the US at this time); the American “critics” flipped over Diana Rigg, and denounced ABC’s “cancellation” of the show (which wasn’t really what happened, but never mind).
When ABC put The Avengers back on in January of ’67, it was the new ‘colour’ Rigg episodes. ABC, following the normal US networking pattern, only ran about 17 of these, saving the future ones for possible use later on (they didn’t know that Diana Rigg was already talking about leaving).
Come fall, the “critics” were all agog over ABC “cancelling” The Avengers again (they actually hadn’t, but …).
When ABC brought The Avengers back in January of ’68, they had to mention that Diana Rigg would be leaving about midway through the new set; naturally, the US “critics” were sore upset that ABC had “fired” Rigg (which ABC hadn’t, but …), and dug in to hate whoever got the nod as replacement.
To this day I am convinced that these “journalistic jints” probably never even knew that The Avengers existed before the B/W Rigg shows. Research was never their strong suit (their present-day successors are even worse, if such a thing is possible).

So in the USA, The Avengers ran on ABC for four “seasons”:
1)Spring-summer 1966, black-and-white with Rigg;
2)Midseason 1967, color with Rigg;
3)Midseason 1968, color, Rigg giving way to Thorson midway through;
4)Fall 1968-69 (full season), color with Thorson.

That’s how the show ran here in the USA, so Michael’s reference to the British seasons might be throwing off those of us without extensive reference libraries.
Yours for further confusion …

18. American interest began with Cathy Gale in Season 3 (just as she left). Trust me, Part Two makes it clearer. It was independent American producers, one for film and one for theatre.

American TV networks were interested in Season 4 and Rigg.

Blackman’s Gale was a huge hit in Great Britain, Rigg and changes in the series made it a World-wide hit.

Some pointless behind the scenes gossip about the making of this post…Originally, it was to be one post. When it had stretched to five thousand words and over seven embedded videos I realized it would break me, Steve, the site, and anyone who might have the spare time to read it. It got broken up into three parts. The first is above, the second looks at Honor Blackman, Cathy Gale, and what happened around her in Season Two and the entire Season Three. The final part is not even a part of the subject – THE AVENGERS before Diana Rigg (yes, the part of Season Four without Rigg is mentioned in Part Two) – I will do a review comparing Season Three episode to a Season Four episode.

This might be considered heresy but I think the Linda Thorson episodes are just as good as the Diana Rigg episodes. Tara King was a slightly different kind of character. For one thing she was a professional spy, not a talented amateur like Mrs Gale and Mrs Peel. Not everyone liked that but I thought it added a subtly different flavour. When Tara King fights the bad guys there’s more of a sense that if she loses it’s not a game – it will cost her her life.

I thought Diana Rigg was great, but I thought Honor Blackman, Linda Thorson and Joanna Lumley were equally good.

The problem I have with original Tara King was she was a step back from the female character Gale and Peel brought to TV. We had enjoyed the modern free-spirit, independent kick-ass woman and went back to the frilly dressed I-need-rescued woman of the past.
No doubt some men would like Tara, but the Peel/Gale fans felt betrayed. I really hated the original Tara King to the point I stopped watching the series.
However the biggest problem facing Tara was her age. It was fun watching Steed and the older adult woman of Peel/Gale flirt. It was creepy watching old man Steed with girls half his age such a Tara and Venus.

My ranking of Steed’s partners is Emma Peel, Honor Blackman, Dr. David Keel, then the rest all who I would like to forget.

Joanna Lumley (Purdey) was the best actor of the rest but was in a horrible series. Linda Thorson (Tara King) deserved better (no one could have followed Rigg’s Peel), but her inexperience as an actor, age, and type of female character worked against her. Julie Stevens (Venus) shared most of the problems of Thorson’s King. Garth Hunt (Mike Gambit), never the greatest actor, was out of place competing with Macnee’s Steed for Alpha male. And Jon Rollason (Dr. Martin King) an average actor stuck in a fill-in role.

I think that the Mrs. Gale character is the best. I was a big fan of Mrs Peel until I saw the Mrs Gale episodes. Honor Blackman’s character brought a much more adult female presences. I liked the ruthless character of Steed and how him and Mrs Gale played off of each other. The scripts was more adult and the acting was better than the US versions of Mrs Peel and Steed. I have purchased all of the DVD with Honor Blackman. Remember Mrs Gale is the one Mrs Peel’s character is patterned after.